


Facet

by kira892



Category: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Multiverse Theory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-11
Updated: 2014-06-11
Packaged: 2018-02-04 06:42:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1769434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kira892/pseuds/kira892
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He always takes the midnight train, a tall redhead with big blue eyes and a wide, thin mouth. He  always barely makes it and Alex has found himself sticking a foot out to hold the doors open for him more than once. He never says thank you, even as twice became three, four, five more times but he always smiles and nods like Alex was doing him a huge personal favor as opposed to just being a half decent person exercising public courtesy (Is it still public courtesy if you do the same thing for the same person over and over?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Facet

**Author's Note:**

> _Long after they're all gone_   
>  _I wear you down to the bone_   
>  _And I held on 7 seas_   
>  _Your heart is still safe with me._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _Can you open your heart?_  
>  _Can you open your heart to me?_  
>  _Going back to the start._  
>  _Going back to the start you'll see._
> 
>  
> 
> -Back to the start, Mr. little jeans

He always takes the midnight train, a tall redhead with big blue eyes and a wide, thin mouth. He always barely makes it and Alex has found himself sticking a foot out to hold the doors open for him more than once. He never says thank you, even as twice became three, four, five more times but he always smiles and nods like Alex was doing him a huge personal favor as opposed to just being a half decent person exercising public courtesy (Is it still public courtesy if you do the same thing for the same person over and over?)

 

Once, just once, after Alex stuck a shoulder out and leaned against the doors to keep them from closing before tall, red and gangly could get left behind, the dude pats him on the arm, beaming at him like Alex just returned his long lost dog and pulls out a crumpled , mostly empty pack of black licorice from his pocket. He offers it to him with an exaggerated flick of his wrist, as if offering a blushing 1940s girl a flower. His hand and forearm are covered in freckles.

 

Alex raises an eyebrow but takes it anyway. Ginger's mouth stretches into a full blown grin when he does and Alex just stares at him until he turns and walks off to go sprawl out over a row of seats near the back of the car. He doesn't eat the licorice, just puts it in his pocket and tosses it out a week later when he finds it still there.

 

Sometimes redhead has a guitar strapped to his back when he gets on the train and sometimes he reeks of smoke and beer. He never seems to be inebriated though, not even when he offers Alex licorice 5 more times. Twice when he held the doors open for him again and thrice more for absolutely no reason. The third time it happens, Alex was sitting down, phone in hand, absently scrolling through his music and deleting songs as he goes.

 

“Licorice?”

 

He looks up to find an open pack of black Twizzlers a few inches from his face. He looks beyond it, tracing the arm holding it up to the freckled face grinning at him through a mouthful of candy.

 

“Why do you keep giving me this stuff?” Alex asks as politely as he can manage.

 

The corner of Ginger's mouth twitches and he gets this gleam in his eye. He looks at Alex contemplatively for a few seconds and then just gets this _look_ like he knows something Alex doesn't and like he's trying to figure something out and coming up hopelessly lost. Eventually he shrugs, arm still holding up the Twizzlers to Alex's face.

 

“You just seem like the kind of weirdo who actually likes it.” he says, giving the pack a little shake.

 

Alex raises an eyebrow, amused and really unsure how to respond to that. One of the weirdest people he's ever met ust called him a weirdo. Funny how life works.

 

“It's not laced with LSD or anything, if you're wondering.” redhead continues, when Alex just sits there and refuses to reach into the bag of licorice and take one.

 

“No offense but, I'm supposed to believe that why?”

 

Redhead just does this weird shrug, head-tilt thing, blue eyes sliding off to the side. “Because it's true? And I'm right, I know I am. You look like a licorice kind of person.” he says, smiling again and pushing the Twizzlers closer to Alex's face. He raises his eyebrows, a challenge.

 

Never really one for being cautious, and knowing that accepting candy from a pseudo stranger is definitely not the strangest or stupidest thing he's ever done, Alex finally reaches into the bag and takes a handful of the only candy he actually likes.

 

They eat Twizzlers in silence and just before Alex gets off at his stop, redhead asks him for his name.

 

“Alex.”

 

Redhead gets that weird, lost-knowing look again and holds out a hand. “Sean.”

 

What happens after that, Alex isn't entirely sure.

 

Well, he knows what happens, how it does just kind of puzzles him a little.

 

First, Sean falls asleep on his shoulder. Which is a thing that happens quite a lot, especially in the subway. Alex sees at least 3 strangers a week list sideways while taking a cat nap and lean on another stranger's shoulder. He himself has been used as a headrest about half a dozen times. What's weird is that he usually gently, politely shoves whoever it is that unintentionally pillowed their head on his shoulder the second they land there and opts to ignore the mumbled apologies and silent glares he receives in return. He does it to Sean too but instead of staring blankly ahead and pretending he didn't just almost push his head into the pole between them or glaring back until Sean looked away first, he chooses to say.

 

“You fell asleep on me.”

 

Sean doesn't apologize, just glares like he's clearly the offended party in the situation. “Yes I know. Can I go back to doing that please?”

 

Alex quirks a brow at him and they stare at each other for a few seconds, blue eyes on blue eyes, Alex's flatly curious and Sean's tired and slightly grumpy.

 

“I had a grand total of 3 minutes of sleep.” Sean offers after a minute, as if that's the only thing that needed to be said.

 

Maybe it is, maybe it's not, but no matter, because when Alex doesn't answer, Sean just closes his eyes and his head flops back down on Alex's shoulder and Alex, despite a startled, “hey,”, doesn't shove him off again.

 

About a week after that, Sean gives him his phone number.

 

And somehow someway, Sean manages to get him to give his.

 

And even stranger, they talk. And talk, and talk.

 

And all the conversations they have; in person, through texts, through phone calls, solidify themselves in a soft blur in Alex's brain. About a month into knowing him, Alex comes to associate Sean Cassidy with music, nightly gigs, the harsh smell of unfiltered cigarettes that he and most people who surround him inhale, and half remembered amalgamation of words, from stupid sentences he's thought to blurt out to him unprompted during breaks of silence, to the tangents he goes off on when he gets a random burst of (sometimes ridiculous, sometimes brilliant) insight about something that his ever fidgety mind has snagged on to, to all the stories he's told about assorted points in his life that range from big, personal events like finishing highschool at Fiorello La Guardia to stepping on a piece of gum 5 minutes before he boarded the train.

 

In what feels like an incredibly short span of time, Sean's voice, his face, even his smell becomes known and familiar to Alex and maybe that's why, when he kisses him for the first time, Alex doesn't pull away. His lips were dry and slightly chapped and Alex doesn't kiss back, doesn't even get the chance to because Sean pulls away first. His eyes search Alex's face warily, though he doesn't look apologetic at all.

 

“Weird?” Sean asks, tongue quickly darting out to wet his lips as an afterthought. Alex's eyes follow the movement instantly and it surprises him, much as the familiar, subtle clench of something hot in his gut.

 

“A little.” he replies, barely above a murmur.

 

“Just a little?” Sean prods with a small half smile, eyes twinkling. Alex finds himself fixated on his lashes, how light they are yet still visible on his stupidly pale skin.

 

He shrugs one shoulder with a quirk of his brows and the other side of Sean's mouth lifts, turning his smile into a full, pleased grin. He doesn't say anything more, just inches over so that Alex's shoulder was touching his as he bows over his hands, picking restlessly at the frayed cuffs of his too long sleeves. When Alex gets off the train, he looks back at him and Sean gives him a smile, Alex can't explain, that looked like it fit somewhere a lot more personal and intimate than here, under the washed out lighting of the train car, surrounded by spaces that a thousand strangers have vacated. He likes it and he gives Sean a wave over his shoulder that the redhead returns with a tiny flutter of his fingers.

 

The first time Sean asks him if he'd like to see his apartment, it rains. It was nothing more than a very light drizzle by the time they climb out of the stuffy subway, droplets landing on their shoulders, their hair, one after the other with long spaces in between like leaking tears.

 

“Question: what's in your apartment that I don't have in mine?” Alex asks, following Sean as he leads the way across the street.

 

“Well,” Sean says, turning so that he's facing Alex and starting to walk backwards. It's late and the streets are empty, the only thing he risks running into would be a street lamp or a stop sign. He thinks it'd be hilarious so Alex doesn't stop him. “For one thing: me, whose company you obviously like since you're here right now. And you'll see. It's really neat I promise.”

 

“Whatever it is wouldn't happen to be under your clothes would it?” Alex asks, sliding his hands into his pockets.

 

Sean grins at him. “Maaaybe. Though what's under there is more of impressive than neat.”

 

Alex rolls his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. If you're into that sort of thing I guess.”

 

Sean gives him a look that's three parts curious and one part wary. “Flat chests and dicks?”

 

Alex just blinks at him slowly. “Scrawny redheads whiter than a sheet of paper.”

 

 

Sean's smile is warm and pleased and it makes an answering warmth bloom low in Alex's chest, right between his ribs. It's small and faint but its there and when Sean turns back around again, reaches back to grab his hand and pull him along as he half runs the last block to his apartment, he doesn't object.

 

He's just a little surprised by Sean's apartment when Sean opens the door and turns on the lights. It takes him only a second to realize that the place was so very _Sean_ and he expected nothing less.

 

Music sheets and old vinyl records litter the walls and floors, stacks of them here and there and a few pages taped up in messy, haphazard patterns across the wallpaper, in between the barely recognizable shape of a mural comprised of chipped or broken records spanning all the walls. There are 3 acoustic guitars lined up against the wall by a small, battered couch and in front of it, a sturdy looking bass rests on 2 amps.

 

The bit that surprises him is the art. Dozens of finished paintings scattered everywhere, leaning on the couch, the walls, some pinned up next to the records and the music sheets, oil and acrylic. There was a cork board next to the one visible window and it's blanketed by a collage of sketches; sheets of white and yellow paper overrun by lines of charcoal pinned to the board with a mismatched assortment of pins. Some of them have polaroids pinned next to them, people and places that looked the same but completely different when seen through a camera and not Sean's hands.

 

There was a small shelf under the cork board and three small paintings stood on it, propped up against the wall. Alex approaches them slowly, studying the paintings one by one.

 

The first is of a woman, red haired and blue skinned, she looks distinctly reptilian, eyes dangerous yellow slits framed by arches of spikes and scales rendered in darker blue streaks and spots that stretch around her face, down her shoulders, her arms, her breasts. Her hair is an unnatural shade of red, short and slicked back from her face. She looks like a predator, cold and dangerous but the look in her eyes, the hard lines of the fist she has pressed to her chest makes her look angry and hurt and more than a little lost.

 

The second is just a pair of eyes, startlingly blue and impossibly sad, hollow. Two streaks of faint white slash diagonally across the whole canvas and intersect right in the middle of the eyes, forming a giant X. The rest of it is just one big void, speckled with tiny shapes, some look human and others look like nothing but tiny, faint streaks of light.

 

The last one makes Alex pause. The most visible thing in the painting is a bunch of circles, each one smaller than the last, all arranged one within the other, the circles are all glowing a bright red, lines of crackling crimson lining each one and the spaces between painted with a searing shade the color of molten lava. Dark shapes frame the circles and Alex recognizes the silhouette of a head bowing over the top half, short, cropped hair nothing but a shadow of clipped, jagged lines. On the bottom half, a pair of hands, thick and strong looking, reaching up in a futile attempt to cover the red. A human bomb, looking as if he was about to try to keep himself from exploding.

 

“Wow,” The word is out of Alex's mouth before he can even think about it.

 

Sean exhales shortly through his nose. “Yeah, that's what I usually get.” There's a short pause as Alex continues to look at the last painting.

 

“I dream about them sometimes.” Sean offers, as if Alex asked. “I do it a lot less now but still.”

 

“These are, they're really good.” Alex says lamely. He's not an artist and barely knows anything about art so he can't really explain why it is, why the long, swooping lines and the dark, rich colors all just work and make all these things very worth looking at, so he doesn't try.

 

“Let me show you something else.” Sean says and walks over to the couch to pry out a small sketch pad tucked in between the cushions. He flips it to a specific page and hesitates, twitches as if he's going to thrust the sketch pad at Alex, stops, then takes a breath. “I think you should reserve this for a 3rd or 4th date type thing but I kind of want to show you now.” and before he can back out of it, he flips the sketch pad around and holds it out so that Alex can see what was on it.

 

It's him. He's just sitting on the subway looking solemn and a little bored, knees apart with elbows braced on top of them. There are obvious smudge marks scattered all over the sketch, as if Sean tried to put a detail down, erased it, put a new one in and erased it again. On the bottom right corner of the page, there was a faint sketch of the bottom half of his face. He feels something weird but not entirely unwelcome as he looks over the penciled lines of his jaw, the cleft of his chin and the carefully rendered bow of his upper lip.

 

“You have a weird mouth.” Sean says, peering at his own sketch.

 

“Thanks.” Alex says flatly.

 

“I like it” Sean says and the grin on his face is muted, soft. His eyes very unsubtly lower to Alex's lips.

 

“Yeah?”

 

Sean approaches him, full of intent. He moves very slowly though, giving Alex plenty of time to back away if he wanted.

 

He stays right where he is.

 

Not an inch of him moves, save for his eyes which give Sean a slow once over, lingering a little on his shoulders, his hands, before moving all the way up and focusing on his face which stops just a little too close to his own.

 

Sean doesn't answer his earlier inquiry with words, just makes sure Alex catches him look meaningfully at his mouth and nods. It's all too clear what he wants, what he intends to do but he doesn't take it, doesn't make a move except _look._ After a second, his eyelids lower and his head tilts and Alex figures it's as good an invitation as any. He takes one step closer, shrinking down the distance between them til it was barely there, angles his head just that little bit upward and kisses Sean.

 

Sean kisses him softly at first, tentative, careful like kissing Alex was something very important that he didn't want to mess up and that just...it's so strange and it makes something, something small and buried deep in Alex's chest ache. They break apart briefly to watch each other through heavy lidded eyes and when they come back together, the kiss is nothing like the first one. It's hot and forceful and Sean's hands are heavy as they trail over his chest, his shoulders to clutch at his hair. His skin is soft and very warm when Alex's hands slide under his shirt. He kneads gently at the jut of Sean's hip bones before moving up slowly, fingers caressing in gentle circles on either side of his navel, up his ribs. Sean makes a noise in his throat, low and urgent then he was ripping off the thin jacket he wore over the shirt and Alex is pulling it off him in one, swift tug.

 

They end up on the couch, which is a little too small for both of them but they're way too busy with each other to care. They fuck, slow and careful at first, rutting against each other until Sean takes both of them in one hand and just fucking goes for it. He comes first and gets Alex off with his mouth before Alex could catch his breath. They lay curled up together in the dark for several, long minutes, content to let the sound of their breathing be the only thing that fills up the silence.

 

Eventually, Sean gets up and tugs Alex to the bedroom where he grabs him by the face and pulls him into another kiss, and another, and another, pushing him back without pulling his mouth away from his and easing Alex gently down on his back on the bed. They touch and kiss until they've both worked themselves up enough for Sean to get up and reach over to his bedside drawer to pull out a small bottle. He hesitates just a little when he comes back to hover overAlex with the thing clutched in his hand.

 

“This, it's okay right?”

 

And it is, so much that Alex is actually a little taken aback by how okay it all is. He nods, maybe a little too eagerly, hands sliding up Sean's thighs to frame his hips, thumbs stroking at his skin.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Sean's smile when he says that is different from every single one he's given Alex since they met. It's pleased but small, tentative, almost painfully fragile and Alex doesn't really get to wonder about it because it only lingers on Sean's face for a moment before Sean leans down to kiss him senseless.

 

“Can I stay the night?”

 

Alex asks later, at some point around midnight, flicking idly at a stray curl that's draped over Sean's nose. Sean lifts his head from where it was pillowed on Alex's shoulder to peer at the ancient nightmare before christmas alarm clock on his bedside drawer.

 

“Seeing as its already morning, nope but you can stay til the sun rises I guess.”

 

Alex rolls his eyes and pinches Sean's nose. “Ass.” Sean makes a noise of protest and bats his hand away, with a glare. His mouth twitches, trying not to smile and utterly failing. “Jerk.” he retorts, pinching Alex's nipple. Alex yelps and the two of them rough each other up as much as they could while lying down until Alex gets Sean into a headlock and the redhead wheezes out a surrender.

 

“You are an asshole.” he says, swatting at Alex's chest half heartedly.

 

“You can kick me out,” Alex says, wrapping his hands around Sean's wrist and holding on.

 

Sean's nose wrinkles. “Hmm. Nah, think I'll keep you around.”

 

Alex pauses for a second, then offers him a small smirk, not giving away how that answer made him feel.

 

Sean pulls his wrist out of Alex's grip and throws one arm over his stomach, head moving to rest on Alex's chest. He lies there quietly for so long that Alex thinks he's fallen asleep and almost jumps when Sean speaks.

 

“Can this not be a one time thing?”

 

Neither one of them dare so much as move after the question and Sean stirs right before Alex speaks, as if he was about to get up and look at him.

 

“What do you want it to be?”

 

He feels Sean shrug. “All I know is I'd like this,” he pauses, sliding his palm over the hard plane of Alex's stomach and up to his chest, fingertips resting over his collar bone. “to happen again and just keep happening indefinitely maybe.”

 

“And?” Alex presses, voice soft.

 

“Well, I don't quite want to buy you flowers or tell you how great you are because like I said, you're kind of an ass,” he pauses to laugh when Alex jabs him in the ribs. “but even though you have a body that makes not caring about your sparkling personality that much easier, I actually do kinda like you Alex and I'd maybe like to hang out with you a lot in between all the repeats of this.” He finishes, patting Alex's chest twice.

 

Alex is silent for nearly a minute, then for a bit longer and finally, he sucks in a breath like a man diving from the highest cliff and reaches over to trace Sean's spine with his fingertips.

 

“Alright.”

 

Sean makes him toast when they stumble out to the kitchen at 11 am and they get into a little war when he smears some maple syrup on Alex's cheek. Alex forgives him in the end because predictably, he wins their struggle and Sean ends up with syrup down his arm and in his hair. He licks it off his skin and cleans up the smudge on Alex's cheek too.

 

They kiss right before Alex walks out the door and the hot lurch in his chest when he sees the look on Sean's face afterwards almost freaks him the hell out because shit, what has he gotten himself into.

 

 

 

 

It's...surprisingly okay. Nice even. Initially, Alex doesn't expect their thing to last for more than a month or maybe 3 at most. But their “thing”, something that remains unlabeled and for that reason among others, makes it fragile, lasts for 4 months and then 2 more. Alex can tell even Sean is a little surprised by that but they carry on. They still take the train together and Sean still gives him licorice sometimes and he still talks and talks and talks. But this time Alex talks back and listening to him becomes something Alex looks forward to as opposed to something he just accepted as it came.

 

They have sex a lot, mostly in Sean's apartment and Alex always assumes he can sleep there all night. Considering he's never been kicked out before he thinks its safe to assume he's right. Sometimes, they go to Alex's apartment and the first time Alex goes to sleep on his bed with Sean by his side, he wakes up to find Sean sitting cross-legged at the foot of the bed, still naked, something thin and metallic wrapped around his fingers.

 

“Hey,” he greets, looking up when he hears the sheets rustle.

 

“Hi.” Alex croaks, rubbing at his eyes. A glance at his alarm clock tells him its 7:45 in the morning. “What are you doing?” he asks, sitting up. Sean lifts a fist and opens his fingers, something silver and vaguely rectangular falls out from his palm before catching on the chain wrapped around his fingers. He looks at Alex, his stare intriguingly heavy. “You were in the army?”

 

Alex tells him what he says whenever someone asks. Enlisted at 18, served til his time was done and came back home at 25.

 

“Why'd you do it?” Sean asks and he's far from the first person to do so. But for some reason, he's the first one to hear the real reason.

 

“Mom got diagnosed a couple months before I graduated. We didn't have the money to take care of her. Brain cancer, she was gone by the time I got out of basic training.” which is why he's made his mind up about enslisting the second month after she was admitted to the hospital. He doesn't say this out loud, doesn't look at Sean but part of him thinks that Sean heard it anyway. He shrugs. “Was certainly hell of a lot better than going to grief therapy and anger management classes.”

 

That gets him a small quiet laugh and nothing more. Sean doesn't say he's sorry or “oh that's awful” or any of the stuff that never made him feel any better, just smiles softly at Alex, still looking at him with an intensity that kind of makes him want to duck under the covers and hide. He slips Alex's dog tags over his head, tugs them once when they're around his neck then crawls over to pull Alex's head down to rest on his thigh.

 

“Go back to sleep.” he says, fingers raking gently through Alex's hair.

 

The dog tags are still around Sean's neck when they come out to the kitchen a few hours later. Alex stares at them as Sean sits on the counter in nothing but his boxers and eats dry cheerios straight from the box and lets Sean keep it, glancing at it one last time when Sean kisses him goodbye and deciding yeah, he's okay with Sean keeping it.

 

 

Eventually Sean tells him about the things he dreams about. At first it just sounds like typical Sean babble. Sometimes he dreams about people that can do extraordinary things, a man who can read, communicate with and control minds, the blue woman that can completely alter her appearance to look like anyone at all and who can put 20 men down easily with one hand tied behind her back. “Sometimes she has a blue boyfriend but they never last for more than a month. He's kinda scary too but he's nice and kind of extremely nerdy. Sometimes she goes with this dude who can control metal with his brain and sometimes she goes and has a kid with this devil guy who can teleport.” Alex laughs when Sean tells him all this.

 

And then the stories start to get serious. War, anguish, the man who can read minds loses his legs every time Sean dreams. Circumstances change details vary but the man with the sad blue eyes remains hopeful and kind even when he loses everything over and over. The blue woman loses a lot too. Sometimes she has a son but she loses him every time.

 

Sometimes, Sean hesitantly admits to him one day when they were curled up on Alex's couch, the TV a dim, muted presence in front of them. Sometimes Sean dreams he was a different person and he knew every single of the fictional people he dreams about. He says he often dreams about flying and that a lot of the times, he dreams about being dead.

 

“Morbid much?” Alex asks.

 

Sean leans his head on his shoulder and shrugs. “It's my subconscious I don't choose what goes on in there. Sometimes it involves a plane, I try to save the people on it but I end up getting run over by it.”

 

Alex raises an eyebrow and Sean continues. “Sometimes I get kidnapped and dissected like a frog. I used to be scared of dentists because in the dreams they always go for my throat, a lot of times through my mouth.” He tries to rein in a pretty heavy shudder and only barely succeeds. “Shit was scary.”

 

Alex frowns a little and leans his cheek against Sean's head. “Sounds scary.”

 

“The dreams weren't all bad though. Sometimes I dreamt of this chick. She's pretty and sometimes I marry her and have a kid. In all the dreams I had powers, she always got them from me.”

 

Alex snorts softly, breath disturbing a few red curls on Sean's head. “You're weird as hell Sean.”

 

Sean just ignores him. “I used to dream about her a lot, but I dream about this other person just as much probably. Sometimes it feels like more. He was blond, kind of like you.”

 

“Let me guess, he was freaky and angsty too.”

 

“Obviously. He was kind of an asshole like you too,” Sean says with a small laugh. Alex just rolls his eyes and nudges him. Sean pauses and then goes on quietly, like he isn't sure if he should be saying it, “Sometimes he and I have a thing” the way he says thing makes it very clear what the word means to imply but Sean says “sometimes he's madly in love with me I think” anyway. “and in every timeline that I die, he almost always goes to fight in a war. In the ones that he doesn't, he just kind of leaves and becomes miserable for the rest of his life. A couple of times, he meets this girl and maybe he loves her but he always ends up leaving her. More than a few times, he left her at the altar. Douche.”

 

“Timelines?” Alex asks, carefully snaking an arm over Sean's shoulders.

 

“I think of the dreams like that. Different timelines featuring the same people making different choices and ending up on different paths. Sometimes I-...have you ever heard of the multiverse theory?”

 

“Outside of science fiction? No.”

 

“Sometimes, especially when I was a kid, I used to wonder if the dreams I keep getting are from different universes with the same whos but different wheres and whys and hows. And I wonder if this is one universe, if I'll run into the same people I keep dreaming about someday.”

 

That makes Alex pause for several long, minutes, more than a little unsure how to respond or what to even think now that he's heard all of this. and when he finds his voice, he asks. “Had any luck with that?”

 

Sean shrugs and turns his face to kiss Alex's ear and bury his face in the space underneath it.

 

“Ever universe is supposed to be different in at least a few ways right? Assuming the multiverse is real, in a lot of them I probably never meet any of the people I dream about.”

 

Sean speaks the words against his skin and Alex turns his head, leaning into the press of the shapes his lips make.

 

“I could pass them by in the subway every day and not have a clue.”

 

Alex doesn't respond to that, just stares back when Sean pulls back to look at him. He has that look again, the one he gave Alex forever ago but this time, the knowing glint is stronger and the lost, questioning glint is dimmer. He smiles, leaning forward to brush his nose against Alex's.

 

Alex just kisses him. Because he's strange and crazy and for some reason makes Alex's feel like the world was ever so slightly skewed and moved just that one small angle and righted itself when he showed up. There's a 98% chance Sean's theory is nothing but weird dreams and an over active imagination, hell, there's a chance he's probably not even serious when he tells Alex about them. But no matter, everything here, right now. This “universe” where he knows Sean and Sean knows him and he's right here on Alex's couch kissing him lazily as if he can keep doing it indefinitely and still want more,

 

It's all good with him.

 


End file.
